


Bulletproof

by ghostieZone



Category: jacksepticeye, jacksepticeye egos - Fandom
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Hurt/Comfort, Jackieboyman - Freeform, Jacksepticeye egos, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Tagging violence just in case, chase brody - Freeform, chase sads are the best/worst sads, it has a happy ending i promise, its not too bad i promise, jacksepticeye - Freeform, swap boys au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-14 23:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16051010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostieZone/pseuds/ghostieZone
Summary: Bro Fantastic has an existential crisis and discovers a new superpower!





	Bulletproof

**Author's Note:**

> Just an idea that we discussed on the stream buds discord about our Swap AU!!! (if you haven't seen it go check out huffle-dork and evyptids on tumblr, they're the real masterminds behind this ;3c)

It was a car crash that sent him over the edge.

Not that the great Bro Fantastic hadn't seen his fair share of crashes; he's saved countless people from their burning cars before. Nothing like this though.

He had made mistakes before, caused some collateral damage as superheros tend to do, but never before had a citizen's death been his fault.

Chase had gotten a call about a bank robbery in the middle of the night, breaking his silent patrol of the city with blaring alarms and police sirens. His string of bad luck began when he had arrived, only to find the vault wide open and empty, and he turned to the screeching of tires on concrete as the getaway driver sped away. 

Chase swore under his breath as he dashed to the sidewalk, just in time to see the beat-up old SUV streaking around a corner with three or four police cars in hot pursuit. 

Allowing himself to go into full hero-mode, Bro Fantastic takes off into the air to follow the entourage from above. The speeding vehicle in the front of the race suddenly swerved to the left as soon as it exited the thickest layer of city life, plowing over a guardrail and landing, tires jolting, onto the highway. Two of the four police cars skidded to a stop at the dangerous feat, but the remaining few continued on, not about to let the thieves get away. 

Taking this as an opportunity to strike, Bro suddenly dropped to the highway, a few feet in front of the speeding vehicle. His intention was to reach out and stop the car with his hands before it could move any further, his eyes preemptively glowing a silvery blue in preparation to use his powers. What happened, though, is not something he had anticipated. 

He had landed a few feet farther away than he had initially intended, giving the driver time to react to the situation and swerve out of the way. Chase felt the air rush past his face as the speeding vehicle veered sharply to the left and crashed through the barrier, zooming onto the opposing lanes. Time stood still as traffic came to a screeching halt, the sound of wrenching metal grating at everyone's ears.

The SUV carrying the criminals and stolen money had slammed into the side of another, smaller car, which in turn was carried by the force and was flipped, landing against the side of a third unfortunate car. For what seemed long time, there was no movement whatsoever. Bro Fantastic was frozen in place, not believing the scene in front of him was real. 

Then, a scream cut through the silence, startling everyone from their thoughts. 

Time started to flow again, and the sharp sounds finally reached the hero’s ears, causing him to jolt into action. He ran as fast as he could over to the crash site, mind on autopilot as he scrambled to find some trace of life, something he could do to help. Traffic was already backed up on the road behind the accident, a few brave people venturing out of their cars to come investigate. 

Bro’s first target was the last car to get hit, taking citizen’s lives as a priority over the criminals’. Prying the crushed door open, he found the driver mostly unharmed aside from a few bloody scrapes and bruises. He helped them out, and ripped open the door to the car that flipped over.

The sight inside stopped Chase's heart.

He stumbled back at the sight, shaking. Both the driver and passenger we're dead, likely killed when the car had flipped. 

It was a woman, likely a mother, and her child. 

Chase stared, wide-eyed, unable to move, unable to speak. _This was his fault, he caused the crash, he was a murderer, he killed them!_ His whole body shuddered violently, until he blinked once and snapped out of his initial fear. All traces of heroism fled from his mind, and he looked around, suddenly paranoid at the sound of police sirens growing slowly closer. 

The bank robbers were probably long-gone by now, but Chase couldn't think about that anymore. He shot into the air, tears streaming down his face, and hurried to the closest place he could find comfort- a local bar. 

He landed in the alley behind the building, tearing his mask off his face and throwing it on the ground in front of him in disgust. He raked a hand through his now-brown hair, knocking his hat off in the process, and stumbled back to rest against the brick wall. A heavy sob escaped his lungs as he slid to the ground, curling his knees up to his chest and tangling fingers in his hair. 

He couldn't find the strength to stand up for what seemed like an eternity. Once the sobs had finally calmed themselves and he was able to breathe again, Chase pushed himself into a standing position and grabbed his hat and mask from the ground. He pulled off his jacket and folded it around the smaller articles, stashing them behind a dumpster to retrieve later. Secret identity be damned- he couldn't bring himself to care if he looked like a hero or not. It wouldn't change anything. 

He pushed himself through the doors of the restaurant, eyes red and puffy, face blotchy from crying so hard. His breath was still shuddering, but he pretended not to notice as he dropped into a seat at the far end of the bar, downing a glass of whiskey. 

Chase gripped his glass and stared at it for a long while, even after it was empty. Images from the crash burned themselves into his mind; the blood from where the poor mother must have hit her head on the steering wheel, the ugly twisted angle of the child's neck-

He shook his head violently, clutching the glass so hard it threatened to shatter. He squeezed his eyes closed and pressed his palms hard on his eyelids until all he could see were spots of color. Tears threatened to spill again, and before he knew what he was doing he had downed more than a few extra drinks. 

He could feel his mind starting to get fuzzy, and the logical part of his brain knew he needed to stop before he hurt himself, but the rest of him needed to get that goddamn picture out of his head. Nothing was more important to him right now than Just. Erasing. These. Thoughts!

The city's “amazing”, failing hero tried to order another drink, but the concerned, kindly old bartender politely declined, saying he was worried for his customer's safety. Chase's addled mind took a second to process the words and he grew frustrated, baring his teeth in a grimace as he pushed away from the bar. He slapped some money on the table and grumbled a slurred, “fine” before walking back out the front door, slamming them behind him a little harder than he intended to. 

Chase, his mind addled with the familiar fuzziness of alcohol, began speaking to him: 

_Can't do anything right…._

_This is your fault…._

_Useless hero!_

He stumbled a bit, running a shaking hand through his hair. His hat, where did he put his hat? 

_Murderer!_

_They're dead because of **YOU!**_

He grit his teeth, bracing a hand against the brick wall and whispering a shaky “no!”, not really knowing who he was talking to. 

He reached his hiding place behind the building, snatching the parts of his costume he had left behind. His mask was a bit crooked on his face, and his hat was sitting at a strange angle on his head, but Chase didn't seem to notice… or care. 

He took off into the air, shaky, his mind on autopilot and not really focusing on where he's going. His eyelids grew heavy- why was he so tired all of a sudden?- and he faltered in the air, dropping in altitude. He snapped back awake at the fall, catching himself- just in time to crash into the metal fire escape on the side of the apartment complex. 

The hero landed hard on his back, groaning not from the pain of a clumsy landing, but at the sound of screeching metal that made his growing headache worse. 

Chase pushed himself up on shaky arms, gripping the railing so hard he could feel the bar denting under his hand. He pressed his free hand to his forehead and took a step forward, sliding the window open and crawling into his bedroom. He sat on the floor underneath the window, back resting against the wall. He pressed his hands so hard over his eyes he could see little spots of color. 

_If only you were better at your **job.** _

_You could have saved them, but you didn't!!!_

_All your fault, all your fault, **all my fault!** _

He suddenly cried out, ripping the mask off his face and throwing it across the room with so much force it made an audible smack! against the opposite wall. 

Chase curled his knees to his chest, feeling warm tears starting to slip from the corners of his eyes. He couldn't get the image of the bodies out of his head, no matter what he did. His mind started to bring up not only their blank, glassy stares, but all the other times he had failed before. 

_You let them get away, you couldn't stop the crash, you couldn't find the missing money, you killed them. **YOU KILLED THEM!**_

“No, it's not my fault!! I didn't mean to…..” Chase's voice cracked as his body was wracked with a heavy sob, voice trailing away to nothing. It was no use, he couldn't stop thinking; couldn't yell at his own mind. 

Besides, his mind seemed set on what it wanted anyway. 

Taking a few heavy breaths to calm his shuddering limbs, standing up with a hand braced against the wall once he felt strong enough. He made his way- slowly- to the side of his bed, crouching back on the floor to reach underneath. He dragged a small black safe out from the depths beneath his bed and set it in the center of the room. He sat beside it, legs crossed, staring at the box like it was a bomb about to explode. 

He shrugged off his jacket and threw it on the bed behind him, then grabbed the hat off his head and crumpled it in his hands. He was shaking again. 

The next few moments happened so fast he couldn't remember them, yet simultaneously seemed to last for eternity. 

Chase unlocked the safe, retrieving the lone item inside- his old pistol. As his fingers touched cool metal the tenseness in his shoulders dissipated a bit. He knew what he was doing, this was something he couldn't possibly fuck up. He pressed the barrel against the side of his head, taking a shaky breath and staring at the floor in front of him. 

_‘This was fine,’_ he told himself, _‘this is how I'm gonna save everyone. This way I can't hurt anyone else.’_

He smiled to himself as if laughing at a private joke. Chase curled his finger around the trigger, and……

_**BANG!** _

The pistol clattered to the floor. Chase collapsed into a fit of spasms, gripping the sides of his head and letting out a wordless scream. It was the worst pain he had ever felt but- he was feeling it. He wasn't supposed to be feeling this, _fuck, fuck fuck fuck!! How could he have possibly-_

His thoughts were cut off as he heard a second, smaller metal sound clink against the floor. His breath hitched as he looked down at the source- 

It was the bullet. 

Some of the pain subsided, but Chase still couldn't move, frozen in place by fear. He could still feel the blood flowing underneath his fingers on the right side of his head, but even that was starting to slow down. 

_This shouldn't be possible, this shouldn’t- why was he still-?_

He curled up on his side, still staring at the bloodied bullet with wide-eyed fear and disbelief. The blood had almost completely stopped flowing now, but he still kept a hand pressed to his temple to try and calm the headache, which had returned full-force. 

Well, at least he didn't feel drunk anymore. 

He didn't know how long he laid there on the floor, staring at the tiny piece of metal, but when he slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, the beginnings of sunlight were starting to light up the horizon. Chase grit his teeth and curled his free hand around the bullet, stuffing it into the pocket of his jeans. 

_The side of his head was still sticky with drying blood, and he could feel the hole in the side of his temple. He slowly removed his hand for the first time, staring numbly at the red staining his skin and sleeve. He was too exhausted to have a proper reaction at first, his mind already scrambling to make sense of the event- that didn't just happen, its not real, it was just a dream, you must have passed out...oh god it was real you fucked up you messed up the one thing you were supposed to get right, you-_

As his thoughts caught up to him he let out a strangled cry, hands shaking violently again. He shook his head slowly despite the pain and squeezed his eyes shut. 

“No, no no no nononono!!” 

He needed to talk to someone. 

Chase fumbled for his phone in the jacket pocket behind him, trying to keep the tears out of his voice when he called the first name that popped up.

“Huh? Chase, what the fuck man it's 5am what're you callin’ for….” A tired voice greeted him on the other line, a muffled yawn prematurely cutting off the end of the sentence. 

Oh god, I called Jackie and probably woke him up, Jackie needs the sleep more than any of us why did I have to do this- 

Chase, lost in his thoughts, didn't reply for a second and just let out a shaky sob, immediately snapping Jackie out of his half-asleep state. 

“Chase? Hey, Chase are you okay? Talk to me buddy, what's goin’ on?” Jackie was in full-on Dad Mode now, keeping his voice gentle but urgent. 

“J-Jackie, I-” Chase stuttered, trying to take a deep breath. “I need…. I need you to come over. I can't-” he broke off, starting to cry again, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry!” 

There was a moment of silence as Jackie processed his words, but after what seemed like hours to Chase, his friend's voice finally responded “okay, okay I'll call Stacy to come watch the kids. I'll be there soon, I promise. Stay where you are for me, okay? I'll be there soon.” 

Chase nodded, even though he knew Jackie couldn't see him. He still held the phone up to his head, long after the other had hung up, just listening to the empty beeping of the dial tone for a while. It wasn’t too long before he heard a knock at the apartment door, followed by the creak of it being pushed open and Jackie's soft voice- in person- calling for him.

\---

“I-I'm here.” 

Jackie’s eyes widened at the sight of his friend, frozen in place for a second. The heavy smell of alcohol hung in the air… Chase had been drinking again. Speak of the devil, there he was, appearing in the doorway to his bedroom, leaning heavily on the frame as if he couldn't stand on his own. He looked like a zombie- his clothes were a mess, just a plain t-shirt and jeans, his face was pale, eyes red from both the alcohol and from crying, his hair a complete mess- but the worst of it was the blood. Seemingly originated from the side of his head, the right side of his face was completely covered. His hands and shirt, too. It looked horrible- deadly, even- but Jackie could see no injury besides what looked like a freshly-healed scar. 

Jeez, he knew head injuries usually looked worse than they actually are, but this? This was something bad. 

He put a hand over his mouth, not sure how to react. “Oh… oh god, Chase what happened to you?” 

Chase looked like a child who had just gotten in trouble for doing something he wasn't supposed to. He bit his lip hard, but Jackie could see the tears falling from his eyes, and how he had started shaking again. Chase opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out other than a soft, stuttered “I- I… I just… ” 

Hearing his voice so broken was what finally snapped Jackie out of his fear. He immediately hurried over and wrapped an arm around Chase's shoulder, wincing at the way he flinched away from the touch, then slowly leaned into it. Up close, he could see the silvery-blue ring of light around Chase's pupils… he had used his powers recently. He led Chase back into his bedroom, sitting him down on the edge of the bed and tilting his head gently to assess the damage. 

There was none.

“Chase, buddy, can you tell me what happened?” Jackie sat down next to him on the bed and Chase leaned close, still shivering. He wouldn't look Jackie in the eye, seemingly ashamed. Instead, he just tensed up, weakly pointing a finger at something that was resting on the floor in the middle of the room. 

A shiny silver gun, laying on a bloodstained carpet. 

Jackie's sharp intake of breath was all it took to set Chase off again, wrapping his arms around his own torso and weakly coughing out sobs. “J-Jackie I… I couldn't- I cant… I tried to and it didn't work and I-!” Chase just started muttering nonsense, half to himself and half to Jackie, but stopped short in surprise when he felt strong arms pulling him in for a bear hug. 

Now it was Jackie's turn to start crying, burying his face in Chase's shoulder. 

They sat there like that for a long time, but neither one of them minded. Finally, Jackie pulled back a bit, wiping at his eyes with the edge of his sleeve and taking a deep breath before speaking again. 

“Do you wanna tell me what happened?” 

Chase hesitated for a second, staring at the carpet. Finally, he leaned forward to rest his forehead against Jackie's shoulder and told him everything- the robbery, the crash, the bar, the- well, he left out some of the details at the end there. By the end of it he had started crying again, mentally punishing himself for being so fragile- when Jackie put hands on his shoulders, pushing him back up into a sitting position so he could look Chase in the eyes again. 

“I want you to listen to me.” 

Chase flinched instinctively at his harsh tone of voice, mistaking it for anger at first. 

“Chase, listen to me. None of this was your fault. It was out of your control, nothing you could've done would have- … you couldn't have changed anything. It sucks, yeah! It's horrible! But you cannot punish yourself for something you didn't do.” 

Jackie's voice became gentle again, comforting. “no matter how many times you think you mess up, that doesn't override the countless times you've helped people! Chase, you make the world a better place, just by being here, being a good person. Even without all the superhero stuff! I mean, look at me! Look at your friends! We don't care that you have superpowers or whatever! We love you for who you are. My kids, they love you for who you are. Nothing that happened today was your fault, okay? None of it.”

Chase looked away again, face full of conflicting emotions, but Jackie put a hand on either side of his face, turning his head back to face him. He squished Chase's cheeks a little in the process, causing them both to start laughing a little.

“See?” Jackie giggled, but returned to a more serious tone, “you're gonna be fine. You'll be okay.” He pulled Chase into a hug again and held him there. “You're gonna be okay. I'm here, everything's gonna be fine, alright?” 

Chase laughed softly, voice muffled by Jackie's oversized hoodie. “Th-thanks Jackie…. I'm sorry I woke you up so early.” 

Jackie laughed sharply at that, startling Chase with the sudden loud sound “Oh are you kiddin’!! You know me, I was wide awake already!!!” He beamed at Chase, infectious positivity basically radiating off of him in waves. “C'mon, Bro,” he stood up suddenly, pulling Chase to his feet by his wrists and dragging him out of the dark bedroom. “Let's get you to Doctor J, alright? He'll help you get cleaned up.” 

Chase shot one last look over his shoulder into the bedroom, eyes locking onto the gun instantly. He stared at it for a second, but then blinked a shook his head softly. No, things were going to be okay now….

For once in his life, he was happy about messing something up so badly.


End file.
